Patriots players say weather helped

Snow, wind, rain gave Pats the advantage over the team from the desert

By Glen Farley

The Patriot Ledger, Quincy, MA

By Glen Farley

Posted Dec. 22, 2008 at 12:01 AM
Updated Dec 22, 2008 at 10:01 PM

By Glen Farley

Posted Dec. 22, 2008 at 12:01 AM
Updated Dec 22, 2008 at 10:01 PM

FOXBORO

» Social News

Gillette Stadium was transformed into the New England Patriots’ winter wonderland.

For the Arizona Cardinals, the stadium became a wintry “blunderland.”

“I think it was Friday,” Patriots running back LaMont Jordan said following his team’s 47-7 romp in the snow, “Sammy (running back Sammy Morris) and I were out there (at practice) in shorts and short-sleeve shirts getting ready for this game. I love the snow, and being out there in Oakland I didn’t get an opportunity to see or play in the snow for the past three years. So when I showed up at the stadium (and) I saw the snow falling and I knew what the weather conditions were going to be, I was pretty excited.

“It was just like waking up on Sunday, walking around the neighborhood knocking on everybody’s door saying, ‘Hey, let’s go play some football.’ That’s what it felt like to me.”

It felt even better, no doubt, later Sunday when the New York Jets fell in Seattle, 13-3. Now, a New England win in Buffalo in this Sunday’s regular-season finale combined with a Jets win at home versus Miami will earn the Patriots the AFC East division title for the sixth straight year. A Patriots win at Buffalo combined with a Baltimore loss at home to Jacksonville would get them an AFC wildcard berth.

Once the flurries started falling in Foxboro, you just had to know the Patriots’ hopes would rise.

Flurries in Foxboro have become the football equivalent of the Harlem Globetrotters walking out on to the hardwood against the Washington Generals.

When the snow falls in Foxboro, opponents fall as well.

Sunday’s victory over the NFC West Division champions improved the Patriots’ all-time record in games played in Foxboro when snow has fallen to a perfect 10.

Now, the organization that gave us the “Snow Bowl” (when referee Walt Coleman’s enforcement of the Tuck Rule aided the Patriots in their 16-13 overtime victory over the Oakland Raiders in an AFC playoff game on Jan. 19, 2002) and the “Snow Plow Game” (when prison inmate Mark Henderson, following orders from head coach Ron Meyer, tucked it to the Miami Dolphins by clearing a path for John Smith’s game-winning field goal in a 3-0 victory on Dec. 12, 1982) has given us the “Snow Blowout.”

Producing all of 44 yards on 15 attempts, the NFL’s poorest-rushing team never had a chance, failing to establish anything remotely resembling a running game while falling 31 points back at the half.

With Morris (88 yards) and Jordan (78 yards and two touchdowns) pacing a 183-yard ground attack and Matt Cassel throwing for 345 yards and three TDs, the Cardinals were down by 47 before they got on the board. With the elements being what they were, the Patriots often employed a big-back attack, using 305-pound guard-center Russ Hochstein at fullback.

Page 2 of 2 - “Most definitely,” cornerback Ellis Hobbs answered when asked if the weather conditions had played to the Patriots’ favor. “I always say when we go to other cities, you can always simulate heat, but it’s hard to simulate that cold. Ball conditions, the weather conditions, stuff hitting you in the face, it was hard, man. So we definitely used that to our advantage.”

It is days like this that prompt aging New Englanders to move to Arizona. It is days like this that make much younger-aged Arizonans wish they’d never visited New England.

“We’re used to it,” Patriots guard Logan Mankins said. “We live here. We practice in it. Arizona, they ain’t getting any snow.”

Prior to the opening kickoff and again at halftime, the field was cleared by five plows. Too bad the Cardinals didn’t wander out of their locker room to watch the process. Then they could have seen what an efficient drive in the snow actually looks like.

By the time the Cardinals got on the scoreboard, on a 78-yard scoring strike from mop-up man Matt Leinart (you may remember him as one of the guys who started in front of Cassel at the University of Southern California) to Larry Fitzgerald, it was past the midway point of the fourth quarter and the snow had turned to rain.

By then, the Patriots were reigning over their visitors.

“I’ve never played in snow before, so it was a first for me,” said Cassel, who was born, bred and went to college in California, “but it actually was a lot of fun.”

In what may have been an unrecognized NFL record, each of the Patriots’ five touchdowns ended with the player scoring standing up.

Actually, Wes Welker concluded his 11-yard score on a pass from Cassel by dropping to the turf and reenacting Lonie Paxton’s “Snow Angel” performance from the aforementioned “Snow Bowl” drawing him a 15-yard penalty for excessive celebration and a scolding from the coach on the sideline.

“Kevin Williams from the Cowboys, I remember when I was a kid he took a punt return for a touchdown,” said Welker. “I remember he did it back in the day so it just kind of came to mind and (I) did it and then proceeded to get cussed out afterward.”

The Cardinals, on the other hand, were left cussing the entire afternoon.

“That was my first time playing in that type of weather,” Cardinals defensive end Antonio Smith said. “It was no fun to me.”